Mistaken Emotions
by xXAsuka-chanXx
Summary: I shouldn't have let her run. I should've paid attention to the signs telling me that there was something wrong...how did she turn out to be so frail? "Neji, this wasn't your fault." I gritted my teeth. "But this-was preventable."


**Mistaken Emotions**

** I decided to get this up because I've actually had this typed and finished for awhile, but so many people wanted A Play That Spells Disaster that I decided not to.**

**I have a few announcements! **

**My good friend Astrocam is now writing with another of my lovely readers, sasusaku779 who has really grown as a writer over the time I've been her beta! It makes me so proud!! –sniff-**

**So, not ONLY will you be getting something from me and Jamie (Queen of Flying Monkeys), but from those two as well!**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO WHATSOEVER! If I did, Sasuke and Sakura would be together along with Neji and Tenten and Naruto and Hinata, Madara would be dead, The Uchihas, Naruto's mom and dad, and Jiraiya would be alive.**

**Oh, and Naruto, of course, would be Roku-daime.**

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

**Beep………..Beep………..Beep……..**

Sigh.

My lavender eyes stared angrily at the chestnut haired girl and the assortment of wires she was attached to.

I wasn't aware of her condition. No one had made the descent decision to inform me. Not her. Not her friends. Not their mutual boyfriends. Not my team. Not even my _coach_.

No one.

"_She'll need a heart transplant, Hyuuga-san."_

"Tenten…" I murmured under my breath. _'Was I the only person that had been exempt? _' I finished mentally as I watched the barely visible rise and fall of her chest.

Her pulse was slow; dangerously slow. She was barely alive. Nearly gone. I knew I shouldn't have taunted her; pushed her beyond her breaking point.

…All those times…

(so many regrets…)

_-Flashback-_

_Sweat trickled down her face and fell onto the track with a soft plopping noise. Her breath was short and rigid, until she noticed a shadow hovering over her. _

_Her chocolate eyes looked up to meet a cocky smirk. "I suggest you rest, Tenten." A pearl eyed man told her with a widening smirk. She scowled before leaping to her feet. Her chocolate brown eyes seemed to show the latter of her willing to quit._

"_Hah! In- your __**dreams… **__Hyuuga." She snapped as she crossed her arms and jerked her head away from him._

"_Oh?" I asked, slightly amused by her tom-boyish attitude. She looked nothing short of exhaustion. Yet, she went back to her lane and got in her starting stance. Neji followed suit. _

"_I bet I'm faster too!" she declared before dashing down her lane marked with a large, green "2". It was always her lane, after all. With an impressed smirk, he sprinted after her._

_When she crossed the finish line first, he saw her through different eyes. _

_Tenten pushed herself harder than he ever thought she did. _

_-End of Flashback-_

I clenched my fists. I _never _expected this. Strong Tenten. Composed Tenten. Fearless, impregnable Tenten. Here. On a hospital bed; barely alive. Unconscious. So _frail_ and **weak**.

…How?

Though I hated to admit it, this chestnut haired, brown eyed girl had always intrigued me in more ways than one. She was unlike any girl I had come across. Not drooling shamelessly over Haruno Sakura's significant other, his double- Sai - or me.

She was different.

The first girl to show up at the track callout meeting. The one who could (nearly) match my endurance. The one who, no matter how exhausted she was, pushed herself until the brink of collapsing. A certain blonde would even say she was "one of the guys", considering how well she had "bonded" with the male track team.

She was definitely different.

Yet, perhaps it really was fate; for things to end up this way. Her chronic absences to both track and school suddenly made sense to me. But I curse myself for not realizing the clues sooner.

_-Flashback-_

"_Tenten! Do you want to hang out tonight?" asked a cheery, pink haired girl as she walked over to the bun haired girl after the school bell dismissed them. The girl was still sitting at her desk, placed beside the window._

_With a tiny smile she shook her head. "I can't. I have something important to do tonight." She explained as a blonde haired girl appeared next to the pink haired one. The cerulean eyed one crossed her arms. "But you're _always _busy, Ten! Sometimes I wonder if you have a life outside of that stupid track." she complained._

_With a laugh Tenten stood and grabbed her bag. "I have to miss practice tonight too. My dad's picking me up in a few minutes." she explained. Emerald eyes widened. "That important, huh? Hmm…" she paused to put a finger to her chin, "Well, keep us posted."_

"_I will. I promise."_

_-_

_-_

_-_

"_Sakura-san!" exclaimed a bow-haircut wearing man as he ran towards a pink haired girl. With a smile she turned around to look at him. "Hi, Lee." She replied. _

_The man grinned and turned to look at the raven haired man walking beside her, hand-in-hand. "Sasuke-san." he added. The stiff man nodded in acknowledgment. Lee turned back to the emerald eyed girl. "Have you seen Tenten on this fine, youthful morning?" he asked._

_Her eyes lowered for a second before turning to look at him. "No, she isn't here today."_

_The dark haired boy frowned. "Is she…?"_

"_Yeah." Sakura murmured. Sasuke, who was standing behind her, grabbed her hand more tightly when he noticed the pain in her voice. Lee struck a "good guy pose" and beamed at her. "Tenten is strong and full of youth! I'm sure nothing will keep her down!"_

_The couple smiled lightly at him. "Yeah."_

_-_

_-_

_-_

I should've known.

"_Coach Gai, please, let me run!!" _

I should've caught on.

"_I can't do that Tenten, sacrificing one of my most youthful runners is-"_

The **signs **were right there!

"_Please you __**need **__me out there!"_

But most of all…

"_Let her run."_

I shouldn't have…

"_N-Neji…"_

I **shouldn't **have…

"…_2 events. That's all I'm allowing.'_

I shouldn't have passed my final judgment.

"_Arigato. I won't let you guys down!"_

And I call myself a Hyuuga.

"_YEAH TENTEN!! 100 METERS TO GO!" screamed her friends from the stands as they watched her sprint well ahead of the others. She had completed her first event- the 100 meter dash- fairly quickly. _

_Now, the 400 meter remained._

_The Konoha track team stood among the track; yelling and cheering her on, even though they were well aware that she was going to place first._

_Yet one man, did not._

_In fact, he was frowning. As if he noticed something was out of place._

_It was the girl._

She was **pale**. And more fatigued than I had ever seen her. But I hadn't noticed this until the very last 100 meters.

"_AND KISHIMOTO HIGH'S FEMALE TRACK STAR, TENTEN FINISHES IN FIRST ONCE MORE LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!" hollered the announcer as Tenten ran through the tape, followed by the other runners. _

_The crowd broke into cheer as the team hurried over to her. Chocolate brown eyes looked up to meet lavender ones exhaustedly. But a tiny smile tugged at her lips. Even though no words were exchanged, they seemed to say:_

"Did I impress you, Neji?"

_And that was when she collapsed._

_Then and there on that track._

"_TENTEN!!"_

"…You shouldn't blame yourself." Said a familiar voice. It belonged to Tenten's pink haired friend, Haruno.

Coldly, I turned to look at her. She was standing in the doorway. Faithfully beside her was Sasuke.

"This- was preventable." I replied quietly as I turned back to the unconscious chestnut haired girl. Yet Haruno shook her head in protest. "But you didn't know she had a condition! You were just trying to be supportive-"

"My efforts were meaningless if _this _was the outcome." I interjected icily. I could feel the Uchiha's glare on my back as he spoke. "It was what she wanted." He added roughly. "It wasn't avoidable."

I clenched my fists. 'I didn't ask for your input, Uchiha." I retorted, which made him growl. I heard the girl murmur something incoherent to him. It seemed to lower the tension in the air.

I turned to the Haruno girl. "You work here, do you not?"

Her emerald eyes blinked at me before nodding. "Y-Yeah. But I can't give out vital information."

"I'm only concerned with one piece of information." I replied curtly. She blinked again; worry could be seen in her eyes. My hostility was scaring her-which the Uchiha was noticing. "What do you want to know?" She asked me, curiously.

"I need you to tell me my blood type."

"x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

"N…"

"En…t…"

"Ten…'

My soft brown eyes fluttered open to meet several pairs of worried eyes staring down at me.

'_Where am I?' _I thought. All the stares were making me uneasy. It was making me feel like a test subject gone wrong.

"Tenten! You're finally awake!" a familiar voice exclaimed. Blurrily, I saw a flash of pink and immediately I found Sakura standing at my side.

When my eyes began to focus, I sat up. That's when I found out just how _many _eyes were staring at me. The entire track team accompanied by my coach, Gai, Ino and Hinata were in this hospital room-

Wait…

Hospital room?

My eyes looked downward. I was wearing an ill-fitting hospital gown.

"How're you feeling?" My blonde haired friend asked as her and Hinata emerged from the crowd. "I've been better." I rasped, before turning to Hinata. "What…happened?"

Hinata began to wriggle her fingers together. She was uneasy. Something bad had happened. To me.

"W-Well...u-umm…you see…y-you-"

"After you placed first in the 400 meters you collapsed. You went into cardiac arrest not long after that." Sakura informed me. Hinata gave her a thankful smile.

My heart almost stopped. Again. I had a heart attack…?

"…Will I be alright?" I managed to croak. Sakura gave me a reassuring smile. "Aah. By nightfall, but…" her voice trailed off.

The room grew silent. I looked around and studied all the faces. They were all filled with sorrow, and no one dared to look up at me. "But?" I repeated uneasily.

My pink haired friend put a clump of her hair behind her ear and sighed. "...the next morning…your heart ended up failing…"

I held my breath.

"..And the doctors said…you needed a heart transplant." She finished quietly.

"_I suggest you rest, Tenten."_

Suddenly, I found myself scanning the crowd again. Only not to figure out that my entire track team had come to find me. Nor to study their facial expressions.

No, this time, it was to find a certain someone.

Someone with lavender-sometimes pearl colored- eyes.

"…Where's Neji?" I asked, puzzled not to see his cocky smirk. Suddenly, the room got extremely quiet. Sakura's smile faltered. "He's…not here." She answered.

"W-We found out that Neji nii-san got into a car accident after the doctors t-told us you needed a heart transplant a-…and…" I heard Hinata murmur.

My eyes grew wide with terror. "N-No…"

"_Tenten's your name, huh?"_

"He put himself on the donor list…" Hinata said quietly.

"_You're improving."_

"**N-No**…"

"_Tired already?"_

"He felt guilty that he agreed to l-let you run in the meet, Tenten."

"_Let her run."_

I let out a choke as I stared at her in disbelief. He couldn't have…he **couldn't**…

_-Flashback-_

"_Neji!"_

"_Oi, Tenten."_

"…_Neji? Can I ask you something?"_

"_Hn."_

"…_Do you think Gai-sensei will let me run in the track sectionals next month?" _

"_Have you given him a reason not to?"_

"_Well…I've missed a lot of practices…"_

"_We need you- to win, Tenten." _

_Glance. _

_Smirk._

"_I can't do it alone."_

"…_Aah. Got it."_

_-End of Flashback-_

That damned Hyuuga…who was always so cocky…so _confident _and _good _at what he did…couldn't have been brought down by a car accident caused by **me**-

-could he?

Not only that…he felt _guilty _for influencing our coach to let me run?

…Had he cared all this time?

"-The doctors said that because both his legs are broken, he might not ever run again." Sakura finished for Hinata, who was beginning to tear up. Her cousin was like a brother to her after all. They grew up together and, though he was still an arrogant **ass**, he watched out for her.

My eyes shot upward. "You mean…he's not…? Where is he?!" I demanded, nearly wringing the life out of my shy, dark-haired friend. "T-Two doors down-"but without waiting for her to finish her sentence, I sprinted out of the room

I had to see him…I had to see that he was alright.

He nearly sacrificed his _life_…for me.

Relief overtook me as I nearly knocked down the door. And there, lying helplessly, was that **STUPID**, egotistical, arrogant Hyuuga that was nothing more than a rival, an _obstacle _in my climb for the top…

…That same lavender-eyed…handsome…talented…_sweet_ Hyuuga…

…I ended up falling for.

All this time…I thought he didn't think of me as anything more than a teammate…

Had I really missed, mistook his emotions all this time?

"You** idiot**…" I growled under my breath as I made my way over to his helpless form. A wet liquid I hadn't seen in years began to blur my vision and roll down my cheeks.

Tears.

Surprised, I wiped them away with a tiny smile made from emotions I couldn't describe.

Look at me, crying over a boy.

When had he gotten this grip on me?

(On my self-control?)

My hand reached out to touch his flawless face.

(On my emotions?)

"Am I?" he asked, without opening his eyes. I pulled my hand back and wiped my damp cheeks. I should've known that he was awake all along. I sat on a stool beside his bed and stared at my hands.

After the most awkward silence, I spoke to him. "…Why?" I asked. "I should be asking you that." He replied in an unexplainable tone. Quizzical as ever.

I frowned in confusion as he elaborated. "Why wasn't I aware of your condition?" he asked me as his lavender eyes slowly opened to question me; stare me down. How could I answer that?

"Was _I _the only one that unaware of it?" he asked.

_Flashback_

"_Ten, when are you going to tell him?' Sakura asked as she kissed Sasuke goodbye and he left with Naruto and Hinata. Tenten sighed before running her hands through her chestnut colored bangs."…Never?" she mumbled._

"_You know you'll have to tell him _sometime_. You can't keep him in the dark forever." She explained. Tenten sighed as she leaned her forehead against her locker. "I wish I could."_

"_He cares about you, Tenten. I can tell by the way he treats you. And it's _not _just because you have talent. I know that he gets worried and searches for you when you don't come to school." Sakura added. "So what makes you think that anything will change between you two if you tell him about your condition?"_

_End of Flashback_

I could bring myself to answer him; his stare, the questioning look in his eyes made me feel- so _guilty_.

He sat himself up steadily so he was eye level with me after a few more minutes of silence. Then, suddenly, he grabbed hold of my chin to turn my head.

I found myself staring into his scrutiny as red burned my cheeks. He murmured my name in a harsh whisper. "_Tenten_, why didn't you _tell _me?" he demanded.

I attempted to turn away from him, but Neji held my chin in place. "Were you ever going to inform me?" he asked. When I shook my head, he scowled. "Tell me _why_." He hissed.

I jerked my face away from his grip. "I was afraid, okay?!" I admitted, but immediately I lowered my eyes. "Ever since I was little, people always worried about my health; treating me so _delicately_.Until you came along." I told him quietly.

From the corner of my eyes I saw his lavender ones soften.

"I told Sasuke to tell the team not to tell you about my condition because…because I didn't want you to see me as weak or 'handicapped'. Around you, I felt…normal."

His eyebrows furrowed in frustration, but his eyes had softened. Awkward silence filled the room before I changed the subject. "What about you, Hyuuga? You of all people wouldn't try give up their heart for no reason."

Neji gave an exasperated sigh as he ran a hand through his long brown hair. Was that a blush I saw on his cheeks?

"I did it because…We…need you." He declared under his breath.

My expression faltered for a minute.

_He did it for the team._

Was that all I was to him? A key part of winning for the track team?

Was that all?

That's what I thought, until Neji- _Hyuuga _Neji- yanked my wrist down and pulled me to his lips; completely taking my breath away.

"**I**…need you." He finished against my lips when he pulled away, but he didn't give my wrist back. My chocolate eyes looked at him in surprise.

_He cared…_

_He really __**cared.**_

An arrogant smirk curled at those (perfect) lips. "You'll need to fill my spot for the time being, Tenten." He replied cheekily. "We can't win alone."

A smile found its way on the crevices of my lips. I lifted my knee onto the hospital bed to move closer to him.

Once an arrogant bastard, always an arrogant bastard.

"Aah. Got ya." I whispered to him before pressing his lips against mine once more.

_Later I found out that mine and Neji's blood type wasn't compatible. _

_He was so frustrated he couldn't think straight._

_Which explains the accident, of course._

_But that's not what really matters_

_He wanted to give me his heart, literally._

_And though his heart isn't a part of me,_

_I definitely have it in my possession._

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

**I'm not entirely sure that I'm satisfied with this ending…I think I might make a sequel that focuses on Neji and his legs healing- But I can't do it without my lovely readers!!**

**Just click that little review button below this Author's Note and let me know what you think. (:**

**A Play That Spells Disaster's first real chapter will be up sometime tomorrow or by Tuesday, but it needs reviews! Please show your support by reviewing T.T It's very much appreciated!**

**xxasukachanxx**

Mistaken Emotions, End


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